Saint Paul's Churchyard (NY, NY)

St. Paul's Chapel, at 209 Broadway, is an Episcopal chapel located on Church Street between...See more

St. Paul's Chapel, at 209 Broadway, is an Episcopal chapel located on
Church Street between Fulton and Vesey Streets, opposite the east side of
the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the
oldest surviving church building in the city.

A chapel of the Parish of Trinity Church, St. Paul's was built on land
granted by Queen Anne of Great Britain, and Andrew Gautier served as the
master craftsman. Upon completion in 1766, it stood in a field some
distance from the growing port city to the south.

The Hearts of Oak, a militia unit organized early in the American
Revolutionary War, and comprised in part of King's College (later, Columbia
University) students, would drill in the Chapel's yard before classes
nearby. Alexander Hamilton was an officer of this unit.

George Washington, along with members of the United States Congress,
worshipped at St. Paul's Chapel on his Inauguration Day, on April 30,
1789.[5] Washington also attended services at St. Paul's during the two
years New York City was the country's capital. Above Washington's pew is an
18th-century oil painting of the Great Seal of the United States; adopted
in 1782.

The chapel contains several monuments and memorials that attest to its
elevated status in early New York: a monument to Richard Montgomery (hero
of the battle of Quebec) sculpted by Jean-Jacques Caffieri (1777), George
Washington's original pew and a neo-Baroque sculpture called
"Glory" designed by Pierre L'Enfant, the designer of Washington,
D.C. The pulpit is surmounted by a coronet and six feathers, and fourteen
original cut-glass chandeliers hang in the nave and the galleries.

After the attack on September 11, 2001, which led to the collapse of the
twin towers of the World Trade Center, St. Paul's Chapel served as a place
of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site.

For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12 hour shifts around the
clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire
fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists,
chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs.

The church survived without even a broken window. Church history declares
it was spared by a miracle sycamore on the northwest corner of the property
that was hit by debris. The tree's root has been preserved in a bronze
memorial by sculptor Steve Tobin.